Advice // Advice 04
Put the feeling into precise words
Evidence Experimental
When a strong feeling arises, name it as precisely as you can, in words, before deciding what to do with it. Naming is itself a form of regulation.
In practice
- Pause and ask: what exactly am I feeling right now?
- Choose the most specific word available, for example "humiliated" rather than "bad", or "apprehensive" rather than "stressed".
- If more than one emotion is present, name each of them separately.
- Add what the feeling is about in a short clause: "disappointed that the plan fell through".
- Only then decide whether the situation calls for reappraisal, action, support or simply time.
Why it works
Naming an emotion shifts processing from an immediate, bodily response toward a verbal, conceptual one. In the process model of emotion regulation, this changes how the situation and the response are represented, which can alter the emotion’s intensity and course (Gross, 1998).
What the evidence shows
Lieberman and colleagues (2007) asked participants to label the emotion shown in photographs of faces, to label another attribute such as gender, or simply to look. Labelling the emotion was associated with lower amygdala activity and higher activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and the two were inversely related. The authors describe affect labelling as a form of implicit emotion regulation: it helps even though people do not intend to regulate.
Naming also makes distance possible. Kross and Ayduk (2011) reviewed evidence that reflecting on negative experiences from a self-distanced perspective helps people make meaning of them without being overwhelmed. A precise label is often the first step in taking that perspective.
What further research adds
The effect of labelling is not limited to brain imaging. In four studies, self-reported distress was lower while participants labelled the emotion in negative pictures than while they passively watched them, and the reduction was similar to that produced by reappraisal and by distraction (Lieberman et al., 2011). Participants nonetheless predicted that labelling would increase their distress, even after experiencing the opposite. With positive pictures, labelling was associated with less self-reported pleasure, which suggests that it dampens affective responses in general rather than only relieving negative feelings. Torre and Lieberman (2018) review this work as evidence that affect labelling is a form of implicit emotion regulation that may not feel like regulation while it happens.
In a clinical application, spider-fearful people underwent a brief course of exposure to a live spider (Kircanski, Lieberman & Craske, 2012). One week later, with a different spider in another context, the group that had labelled their feelings during exposure showed a smaller skin conductance response than the groups that had reappraised, distracted themselves or received exposure alone, but it did not differ from them in self-reported fear. Greater use of anxiety and fear words during exposure was associated with greater reductions in fear responding.
In short
Before trying to release a feeling, give it a name. It costs a few seconds, requires no discharge, and changes what happens next.
Limits
- The main neuroimaging evidence comes from laboratory tasks with standardised images rather than personal events.
- Labelling can become rumination if it turns into repeated, abstract analysis of why the feeling exists.
- Some people find it difficult to identify emotions; this is a skill that can be developed, and difficulty is not a failure.
- Labelling dampens pleasant feelings too, and after exposure with labelling, skin conductance responses were lower but self-reported fear was not (Lieberman et al., 2011; Kircanski et al., 2012).
Claims made on this page
Each claim is graded in the evidence ledger, with its sources and review dates. Evidence →
Labelling the emotion in a facial image was associated with reduced amygdala response and increased right ventrolateral prefrontal activity, consistent with affect labelling acting as implicit regulation.
- Scope
- An fMRI laboratory task with standardised emotional images.
- Caveat
- Personal events and later recovery were not studied; the practical advice to name feelings extrapolates from this mechanism.
Last reviewed · Review due · affect-labelling-regulation
Labelling emotions lowered self-reported distress about as much as reappraisal and distraction, although participants expected it to increase distress, and it also dampened pleasure; after exposure therapy with labelling, skin conductance responses were lower but self-reported fear was not.
- Scope
- Laboratory picture tasks and a brief exposure course for spider fear.
- Caveat
- Effects differ between self-report and physiology, and most evidence comes from one research group.
Last reviewed · Review due · advice-affect-labeling-beyond-imaging
References
- (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x
- (2011). Making meaning out of negative experiences by self-distancing. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(3), 187–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411408883
- (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271
- (2011). Subjective responses to emotional stimuli during labeling, reappraisal, and distraction. Emotion, 11(3), 468–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023503
- (2018). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling as implicit emotion regulation. Emotion Review, 10(2), 116–124. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073917742706
- (2012). Feelings into words: Contributions of language to exposure therapy. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1086–1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612443830